East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call April 23, 2024 5:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Adrienne Atkinson - Director of IR
Dominic Ng - Chairman and CEO
Christopher Del Moral-Niles - CFO
Irene Oh - CRO

Conference Call Participants

Jared Shaw - Barclays
Casey Haire - Jefferies
Dave Rochester - Compass Point
Ben Gerlinger - Citi
Manan Gosalia - Morgan Stanley
Brandon King - Truist
Ebrahim Poonawala - Bank of America
Chris McGratty - KBW
Samuel Varga - UBS

Operator

Good day. Welcome to the East West Bancorp's First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Adrienne Atkinson, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Adrienne Atkinson

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, and thank you, everyone, for joining us to review East West Bancorp's first quarter 2024 financial results. With me are Dominic Ng, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Christopher Del Moral-Niles, Chief Financial Officer; and Irene Oh, Chief Risk Officer.

This call is being recorded and will be available for replay on our Investor Relations website. The slide deck referenced during this call is available on our site.

Management may make projections or other forward-looking statements, which may differ materially from the actual results due to a number of risks and uncertainties. Management may discuss non-GAAP financial measures. For a more detailed description of the risk factors and the reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures, please refer to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Form 8-K filed today.

I will now turn the call over to Dominic.

Dominic Ng

Thank you, Adrienne. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for our first quarter earnings call.

I'm pleased to report first quarter results that laid a strong foundation for 2024. First quarter 2024 net income was $285 million or $2.03 per diluted share. Excluding the FDIC charge, first quarter adjusted earnings per share was $2.08, up 3% from the fourth quarter.

We grew average assets during the quarter with average loans up 1%. We continue to grow residential mortgages driven by our differentiated mortgage product. Average C&I balances were higher and commercial real estate loans remained flat.

We grew average deposits by $2 billion to a new record level, reflecting the success of our branch-based Lunar New Year CD campaign. During the quarter, we paid off $4.5 billion of BTFP while reducing our total borrowings by $1 billion. We also took an opportunity to invest excess cash into Ginnie Mae floating rate securities.